One month after the Global relaunch and very close to pioneering the new strategy in Germany almost a year ago – repositioning Wayra as pushing corporate innovation and showing the ability to fall down and get back up again, going the extra mile aiming to break through the growth ceiling and act to get things done -  Wayra decides, that it’s the right time to push themselves further and look for new business opportunities, being transparent with the challenges their core business is facing and the necessary transformations in the line of fire, because they understand that all companies face two choices: disrupt or be disrupted.

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“Deep tech is Wayra’s creed and Telefonica’s new year resolution”

Hence the first thing people might hear in a couple of days is all about end-to-end solutions, trackers, dongles, connections and superfast networks that come with a focus on IoT for business customers as well as on Consumer IoT.  Start-ups that bring a white label approach which can be linked to the Telefónica network or a grab-and-go solution will benefit from the access to Wayra mother company’s platforms, its technologies and experts, so that together, they can test new products and services and scale up the very best of them.

“We are proud that Wayra Germany and Telefonica Germany have moved closer together in the last months. Today we work successfully hand-in-hand to bring innovation from outside into Telefonica and to find the best start-ups. We work as one team with our Telefonica colleagues to meet the specific needs of the business units.” – Katrin Bacic, Head of Venture Development Wayra

Moreover, Telefónica launched the The IoT Activation program in order to help startups test new Internet of Things solutions and shorten their time to market. They provide support and a lab to perform early stage functional tests to scale up IoT pilots on the field by delivering the start-ups access to exclusive assets, services and tools, so they can engage in their solution and use cases instead of wasting time on network or connectivity issues, since Telefónica provides +18M managed IoT connections across the globe.

The second spotlight is on 5G -- Smart prediction models, Edge Cloud or backhaul are not Sci-Fi anymore, the next generation of wireless networks is here, and Telefonica needs brave startups who are ready to write the future of cellular technology.

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A step away of Isaac Asimov and how 2064 would look like, in a current digital world evolving at breakneck speed, customers now expect innovation and customer service, and any company that does not understand, with a sense of urgency, that it’s all about the customer will not be around for very long. Therefore, solutions for Best Agers and Families - Smart, innovative service solutions to simplify the daily life of families and best agers are also on the radar, along with o2 Shop Solutions for a better customer service and practice within our commercial spaces or EdTech - Efficient, innovative, and playful solutions to train or further develop sales employees.

And that’s not all, Telefónica last, but not least, call is about Value-Added Services for Financial and Insurance affairs - Innovative consumer solutions from banking-related industries such as insurance and investment to enlarge the existing o2 Banking proposition. The aim is to offer a broad financial eco-system to the end consumer.
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Stay tuned!